Trailer Watch: 05/10/11

John Dies At The End

Cult favourite Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep, The Beastmaster) returns to the silver screen with this fun looking surreal horror comedy based on a cult novel by David Wong. As you can gather from my previous sentence, this has ‘cult-favourite’ written all over it. It looks quite silly, but in a good way and still has enough ‘oddness’ to make it look pretty creepy. It’s not going to be for everyone I imagine and the low budget won’t do it any favours in the multiplexes, but I’m sold and a lot of horror, comedy and ‘trippy’ movie fans will be too I imagine.

The Catechism Cataclysm

Director:Todd Rohal
Cast:Steve Little, Robert Longstreet

A lo-fi comedy that supposedly was a big hit at Sundance and SXSW, The Catechism Cataclysm trailer didn’t really do much for me to be honest. It looks pretty goofy, but more irritating than endearing. Maybe at feature length I’ll warm to it’s style, but I didn’t even raise a smile watching this, so it needs to work on it’s marketing if it hopes to attract much of an audience.

I Melt With You

Opening with a group of men bonding and getting wasted on some sort of reunion, the trailer then starts to take a darker edge and suggests things haven’t always been so rosy for the group of friends. Mark Pellington (Arlington Road) is behind the camera in what looks like a most intriguing drama/thriller. It looks stylish, has a number of underrated cast members on display and doesn’t give too much away. A great trailer – let’s hope it’s selling a great film.

Being Elmo

A documentary about how Kevin Clash came to create and bring alive one of the most enduring puppets in the entertainment world, Being Elmo looks like typical heart-warming rags-to-riches fare. Saying that, it certainly seems to work. The trailer was, I hate to admit it, getting me a bit emotional. Yes that’s probably down to the OTT sappy music and lots of clips of Kevin making little kids happy – manipulative for sure, but if it works, it works.